Recommended Games

Urban Coyotes Could Set Stage for Larger Predators

Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist at Ohio State University, inspects a coyote captured in the greater …

Many urbanites in Chicago and other big cities have gotten used to the presence of coyotes, what with the wily animal popping up in everyday locations like a Quiznos sandwich shop, as happened in 2007. But the animal's presence in urban areas sets the stage for larger predators like wolves, mountain lions and bears, which might be harder to live with, according to one coyote researcher.

About 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Chicago O'Hare International Airport is the smallest coyote territory ever found, which takes up all of a third of a square mile (0.8 square km).

That coyotes can survive in such a small area means they have plenty of food on which to survive. "They're finding everything they need right there, in the suburbs of Chicago," Stan Gehrt, an Ohio State University researcher, said in a statement. "It amazes me."

Coyotes are the largest mammalian predators to have made their way into and thrive in urban settings. But still larger animals could follow the same path.

The test case

"The coyote is the test case for other animals," Gehrt said. "Raccoons, skunks, foxes —they've already been able to penetrate the urban landscape pretty well. The coyote is the most recent and largest. The jury's out with what's going to happen with the bigger ones."

Gehrt has been tracking coyotes in the Windy City since 2000, and has put tags on about 680 of the animals, tracking 50-60 of them at a time. His research has revealed some surprises: For example, unlike their rural kin, urban coyotes are monogamous, sticking with one mate for life. That's pretty rare in the animal kingdom, he said.

Mountain lions and bears have been seen in increasing numbers in some areas. One mountain lion was recently shot in the Wrigleyville neighborhood of Chicago, for example. But unlike coyotes, mountain lions and bears are more likely to move into urban areas to find food, before returning to the countryside to reside, said Stewart Breck, a wildlife specialist at the National Wildlife Research Center, in Fort Collins, Colo.

Still, bears occasionally take up residence in urban areas, and this is a trend that could increase, Breck told OurAmazingPlanet. Breck recently started a study of human-coyote interactions in the Denver metropolitan area, where he guessed there may be approximately 500 coyotes.

Challenge of coexistence

The movement of these wild animals into urban areas could present challenges for both humans and animals trying to coexist.

"It used to be rural areas where we would have this challenge of coexistence versus conflict with carnivores," Gehrt said. "In the future, and I would say currently, it's cities where we're going to have this intersection between people and carnivores," he said.

That said, there has been little conflict between the 2,000 coyotes that live in the Chicago metro area, and its 9 million human residents.

In fact, many Chicagoans have come to appreciate coyotes. A Chicago Fire Department boat recently rescued a coyote dubbed Holly who was stranded on an ice flow in Lake Michigan.

Coyotes are usually docile around people, and there is only one known case of the animals killing a human adult — a lone hiker was reportedly attacked by two coyotes in Nova Scotia in 2009.

"We used to think only little carnivores could live in cities, and even then we thought they couldn't really achieve large numbers," Gehrt said. "But we're finding that these animals are much more flexible than we gave them credit for and they're adjusting to our cities."

Gehrt will describe his research today (Oct. 5) in a talk at EcoSummit 2012, an international conference focused on ecological sustainability being held in Columbus, Ohio, this year.

While there are more people than ever before, there are also more carnivores moving into cities, Gehrt said.

In comparing his findings about coyote survival in cities to research by another group on those living in rural areas, Gehrt has found that the urban coyote pup survival rate is five times higher than the rate for rural pups. In both environments, humans are the coyotes' primary predator, either through intentional removal or accidental death from automobiles.

Pakistani military helicopters on Thursday, Dec., 8, ferried remains of plane crash victims to the capital, Islamabad, as aviation authorities said they opened a probe into the crash that killed 47 passengers and crew the day before in the country’s northwest. The small twin-propeller aircraft was traveling from the scenic mountain resort city of Chitral to Islamabad on Wednesday when one of its engines failed shortly after takeoff and crashed in the hillside village of Gug in the district of, according to Pervez George of the Civil Aviation Authority. The plane belonged to the Pakistani national carrier, the Pakistan International Airlines, and had 42 passengers and five crew members on board, PIA spokesman Daniyal Gilani said. (AP) See more news-related photo galleries and follow us on Yahoo News Photo Tumblr .

A federal judge in Michigan on Wednesday revoked his order requiring a recount of the state's presidential vote sought by Jill Stein, siding with a state appeals court that found the Green Party candidate had no grounds to mount the challenge. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith's ruling has the effect of halting the recount in Michigan, at least for now, following conflicting rulings a day earlier by federal and state appeals courts. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered the recount stopped, while the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Goldsmith's earlier decision and said the process should proceed.

After inadvertently sending out a promotional email on Wednesday regarding the NES Classic Edition, Best Buy sent out a clarification email later in the day to confirm that it would in fact have the hard-to-find console in stock at retail stores beginning on December 20th.
Last night, Oscar Muñoz ( @oscarinmv on Twitter ) received an email from Best Buy informing him that the NES Classic Edition would be "available in all Best Buy stores tomorrow, December 20." At the time, "tomorrow" was actually December 8th, which explains why Best Buy had to send another email minutes later explaining that NES Classic Edition consoles would actually be in stores on the 20th (via: @matthewrex ).
https://twitter.com/matthewrex/status/806661882941583360
Unsurprisingly, there will be limited quantities available, so if you want to grab an NES Classic Edition from Best Buy later this month, you'll probably need to be at your local store the minute it opens.
Nothing in the email suggests that any stock will be available on BestBuy.com , but it still might be worth keeping an eye out on the website come December 20th. We'll be sure to update this post if we hear anything definitive about the NES Classic Edition coming to Best Buy's website.
If you don't want to wait that long, Amazon said on Twitter earlier this week that it would have "exciting announcements to make in the coming week" for NES Classic Edition fans. We won't know for sure until the retailer shares more details, but we have to assume that means Amazon will have more units soon as well.

Donald Trump’s former campaign manager says the president-elect has already accomplished more in the month since his election than President Obama has in the last four years. “Donald Trump, in the first four weeks of his presidency, has done more to help this country than I think Barack Obama has done in the last four years,” Corey Lewandowski said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Tuesday. Lewandowski, an informal Trump adviser expected to join his administration, said Trump has a shown a stronger “commitment” to the U.S. military and American businesses than the Obama administration’s second term by vowing “to reduce the amount of government regulations so they can continue to grow” at a rate higher than the current economy.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man convicted of killing a store clerk is scheduled to be executed Thursday, but lawyers for the former Eagle Scout are urging it be blocked because a judge overrode a jury recommendation in imposing the death sentence.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas' highest court on Thursday threw out a judge's ruling that could have allowed all married same-sex couples to get the names of both spouses on their children's birth certificates without a court order, saying it doesn't violate equal protection "to acknowledge basic biological truths."